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Patch 8.11 Early Look

By RiotAether, DyQuill

RiotAether and DyQuill here on behalf of the gameplay devs! Everyone's heads-down getting these changes ready, so we'll be your guides through this early look at patch 8.11.

Two patches from now, we're releasing a bunch of changes to marksman items, runes, and stats. While we aren't shipping any champion ability overhauls, these changes add up to a significant shift in item and rune builds. Once everything's live, you'll see more marksman playstyles that aren't "late-game crits or bust".

We're sharing an early preview of those changes today so you have plenty of time to theorycraft. For more traditional dev blog-style context on everything here and on marksmen in general, head to the dev corner.

A quick note on Midseason

The past six months have been a lot to keep up with for you (and a lot to follow up on for us). Last preseason brought us Runes Reforged, the largest update to League gameplay we've ever released in one go. Since then, we've also packed big changes into even-numbered patches—think the AP item overhaul in 8.4 and the Conqueror keystone rune in 8.6—changes that would've normally had to wait for midseason.

Launching a big, flashy feature like Rift Herald or Elemental Drakes on top of all that felt like overkill, so 2018 won't have an uppercase-M Midseason patch. The lowercase-m midseason timeframe will still have big changes like the marksman work we're talking about here, but 8.11 is as big as patches will be until preseason toward the end of the year.

Runes

NEW

Hail of Blades (Domination keystone)

"For quick fights."

Your first three basic attacks against champions in combat gain bonus attack speed. These attacks can exceed the attack speed limit.

Fleet Footwork

"Less safety early."

Less movement speed at early levels

Same healing at levels 1 and 18 but less in-between

Items

updated

Infinity Edge

"Crit-focused marksmen will have to wait longer to scale up."

(B.F. Sword + B.F. Sword)

+Attack Damage

UNIQUE Passive - Razor Sharp: Doubles your Critical Strike Chance.

UNIQUE Passive: A portion of Critical Strike damage is converted to True Damage.

removedNo longer grants Critical Strike Chance.

removedNo longer increases the damage of critical strikes.

Zeal & All Upgrades

"These cost more. Crit chance won't show up as early in lane."

removedCloak of Agility

"Both its upgrades are being reworked, so it no longer has a home. Goodbye, Cloak of Agility!"

Lord Dominik's Regards

"Now it punches through base armor, too."

UNIQUE Passive - Last Whisper: Gain a large amount of total armor penetration.

removedNo longer grants increased damage against enemies with more maximum health than you.

Last Whisper

"This also grants total penetration now."

removedGiant Slayer

"Lord Dominik's doesn't need this anymore, so like Cloak of Agility, it's retiring."

Executioner's Calling & Mortal Reminder

"TBD. Stay tuned!"

Blade of the Ruined King

"It's cheaper."

The Bloodthirster

"It's cheaper."

Guardian Angel

"You'll be sturdier while you build this."

Builds out of Chain Vest instead of Cloth Armor

More attack damage

More armor

Maw of Malmortius

"Better stats and a shield scaling nerf marksmen won't care about."

More attack damage

More magic resist

Magic damage shield no longer scales with magic resist

Stats

These numbers vary from champ to champ, but broadly speaking, bot lane marksmen are trading away some lane strength for more power later on. (Quinn, Kindred, and Graves play in other positions, so tuning them around bot lane felt like it'd do more harm than good.)

"Lane fights hurt more, but you won't get blown up as fast later on."

-5 armor

-2 base health regen

Between +6 and +15 base health (champs without poke damage get the bigger numbers)

+6 health growth

"Less AD early, more late."

-4 base attack damage

+0.7 attack damage growth

When 8.11 ships, if you miss last-hitting a minion by 4 or less, we'll give it to you anyway. The training wheels will come off gradually in the patches after.

The 8.11 puzzle has a lot of pieces, but if you've been itching to try new marksman playstyles, this'll be your moment. Let us know what you think the best setups will be!